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NY Times Columnist Maureen Dowd Accused of Plagiarism

posted May 17, 2009 - 5:06pm
NY Times Columnist Maureen Dowd Accused of Plagiarism

Longtime New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd has been accused of plagiarism in a recent column in which she criticized former vice president Dick Cheney.

The controversy came to light this afternoon when the political blog Talking Points Memo published an article saying that Dowd's column in today's Times plagiarized a paragraph from TPM's Joshua Marshall. The news spread when Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, posted the following message in his Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu):

Wowzer: Seems Maureen Dowd plagiarized from TPM's Josh Marshall http://tr.im/lBq3 Wonder what the explanation could be.

Dowd's New York Times column is titled "Cheney, Master of Pain." The text in question appears in Dowd's column as follows:

'More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the Bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq."

This text is virtually identical to that in a blog posting made by Marshall on May 14th.

Marshall posted the following message in his Twitter feed:

ATT Media Peeps: "NY Times' Maureen Dowd Plagiarizes TPM's Josh Marshall | thejoshuablog's Blog" ( http://tinyurl.com/q576yr )

News of the alleged plagiarism was spreading quickly through Twitter on Sunday afternoon. It will be interesting to see what Dowd or the Times have to say.

Author: Idlewild
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Comments

No Excuse For Plagiarism

TylaMac - Sun, 2009-24-5 2:33 am
Dowd's excuses are lame and pathetic coming from a newspaper veteran who should know better. I think the New York Times is now solidly on the "Do Not Trust" list. No wonder they are losing readership. Tyla Mac http://www.xomba.com/referral/777b5ae7">Get Paid To Write For Xomba Become A Squidoo Lensmaster

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Copying

Idlewild - Fri, 2009-22-5 8:18 pm
Yeah, she was sloppy at the least. Doesn't seem like she's going to pay any price for doing this, though.

Hacks

Idlewild - Fri, 2009-22-5 8:16 pm
Dowd is certainly well paid, being one of the top columnists. I'm not sure the average reporters out on the beat make that much. People like Dowd also have a lot of leeway in what they can write about... she has dragged out her Cheney-as-Darth Vader schtick three times in the last two weeks.

Train wreck

Idlewild - Fri, 2009-22-5 8:14 pm
Ha! that photo is definitely appropriate. And to make Dowd's week even worse, I heard that Rush Limbaugh defended her?!

Not much excuse

Mr.X - Wed, 2009-20-5 4:03 am
There's not much excuse for plagarism. It can get you kicked out of school according to most codes of conduct. Avoiding plagaism is basic undergraduate work in any university environment. I'm no saint or writing expert by far but a meida professional should know better.

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third class hacks

Rycharde Manne - Tue, 2009-19-5 4:11 am
I think this is quite funny within the context of trained journalists thinking that bloggers and community journos are just third-class hacks. The mainstream media pay their writers well and given the dwindling revenues they are under pressure to be worth what they're paid. Obviously not in this case. Join Xomba Here

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Plagiarism is the rape of another person's work

Joseph E Howard - Mon, 2009-18-5 9:07 pm
Well, some pictures just say it all, don't they? I went over to Chris' suggested link, Gawker.com, and the first thing I saw was this picture (Trainwreck photo via On The Brink, & then via Gawker) Like I said in a previous post, when I was attending community college I failed to cite a quote in a final paper, and was hit with plagiarism. Now, the part I didn't mention was the fact the school was heading in the direction of expelling me. I had to prove it was an error. I was able to prove my mistake by producing all three drafts of the paper. My instructor had actually checked ok, and made some corrections on all three. On all the drafts the quote had been cited. (It was a 14 page paper, with multiple cited sources.) And, because I had provided proof I didn't get expelled, but, I still lost the credits for the class and three months of work on my paper. My point in saying this is "she at the very least should be demanded to bring forth the proof," and like its already been said, if her friend spoke to her on the phone, or in a text, or in an email there has got to be proof. And, if the friend told her in-person, well, she had to have written it down. And who, and where is "the friend?" The paragraph is just-to-identical to say "oh, Ms. Dowd, we believe you, after-all look who you are, let's just sweep it under the carpet." I had to produce proof, and even with proof was penalized. Plagiarism is the rape of another person's work. PROOF, PROOF, PROOF!! I want to see it! And, regardless, she still must be penalized. "you can not vote on the truth" --Pope John Paul II, 1995 f you liked this article why not go to the YELLOW BOX at the top right of this piece and vote -- CLICK the +. Creating A World That Works For All - the Common Way Institute (Portland, OR) http://www.commonway.org Make Money Writing $$$: http://www.xomba.com/referral/7777ea2e ↑ Grab this Headline Animator

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Laziness

Idlewild - Mon, 2009-18-5 6:19 pm
Yeah, I agree... maybe a staffer saw it and intended to reword it or have Dowd do that, but then forgot or whatever. Doesn't reflect well on Dowd, her staff, or the Times... especially since papers like the Times complain about bloggers stealing *their* content!

Plagiarism

Idlewild - Mon, 2009-18-5 6:17 pm
Or Dowd (or the person who inserted the sentence) should have just quoted the copy in full, but it in quotation marks, and given attribution (which is what the paper has now done). Dowd's explanation that she heard this statement on the phone (and remembered it word for word) doesn't seem plausible. Sounds like she got it through email or an IM.

Check out this article at

Chris Crow - Mon, 2009-18-5 3:52 pm
Check out this article at Gawker. http://gawker.com/5259082/maureen-dowd-admits-to-an-act-of-accidental-plagiarism The thing that is so weird about this is that the sentences she copied weren't really anything extraordinary or anything no one knew. The ideas about the Bush administration's schemes for supporting an ill-advised war are nothing new. She could have easily "re-written" this in her own words. This is what bloggers do all day. But I think what we're seeing here is a case of outsourcing her column (or at least the outlining and research of it) to someone and the person thinking they wouldn't get caught. She won't make this mistake again and needs to write her own column. This is what makes "new media" (if you'll excuse the lame term) really cool--people can't get away with BS as much anymore. Don't get me wrong--they do still. But you have to be more transparent than ever before. People WILL call you out. Join Xomba and Start Making Money from your Writing Today! Watch Over 100,000 Free TV Shows and Movies at www.graboid.com

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